Due to the widespread supply of wireless portable communication devices and development of wireless communication technology, the number of peoples who use a wireless Internet is increased. A need for the use of the wireless Internet in actual life is gradually increased due to development of a variety of contents and improved services.
Furthermore, the number of on-line and off-line operating entities, which provide a variety of contents using the wireless Internet, is gradually increased. The provision of various services using the wireless Internet in the future will further accelerate the activation of a wireless Internet market.
Further, wireless portable mobile phones have been widely provided. The number of people who are connected to the wireless Internet using PCs, PDAs and the like are further increased. In addition, the use of the wireless Internet contents has gradually shifted from a conventional character/melody downloading service field to various service fields such as games, e-mail, broadcasting, entertainment, sports, shopping and so on. In line with these trends, there is a growing need for a variety of contents providing services using the existing wireless Internet to become more universal and accessible.
However, there are still lots of problems in saying that anyone can access the wireless Internet services. In reality, there are lots of problems in saying that a user uses desired information and contents anywhere and anytime without significant limitations.
According to various statistic data, the reason why a user does not use the wireless Internet services usually lies in that the user does not feel the necessity, the fees are high, the use is difficult, and it is not so general and convenient like the wired Internet. In other words, lack of development of a variety of contents that makes a user want to use it, a difficulty in wireless Internet navigation, lack of services that allow the user to access desired contents at a time, are important problems that must be solved.
For example, if a user uses a mobile phone to purchase a movie ticket in advance via a wireless Internet, the user has to input various keys at least 10 times and to pay an expensive communication fee since the access time is taken long.
Furthermore, according to the research by Nielson Norman Group, it was found that most people think the navigation is the most unsatisfactory point in using the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).
In a wireless portable device, especially a mobile phone, improvements for technical functions have been significantly made for the past several years. Thus, it can be said that a network connection function and a multimedia support function of the wireless portable device recently become almost compatible to those for common PCs. A camera phones having built a camera therein has recently been actively used. Portable devices having a wireless Internet access function, an improved graphic function and an advanced multimedia support environment have been widely used.
However, the infrastructure that can support the functions of the advanced portable device is incomplete and there are some limitations in using the functions of the camera attached to the camera phone. In view of platforms or services, therefore, it is not compatible to the technical development speed of the portable device.
An inventor of the present invention filed a patent application (Korean Patent Application No. 2000-0085811) on Dec. 29, 2000. This discloses a coded pattern and method for extracting codes from patterns, wherein patterns having code information and pattern images are acquired and codes are extracted by means of a camera. In this technology, two-dimensional barcodes are acquired and codes are extracted, by means of a variety of devices having a camera attached thereto.
Furthermore, the present inventor filed a patent application (Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0323759). It discloses a device and method, wherein specific codes are extracted from pattern images using a mobile communication device having built a camera therein, and information is displayed on the device based on the codes or provided via a communication network.
In addition, the prevent inventor filed a patent application (Korean Patent Application No. 2000-0032164) on Jun. 12, 2000. This technology discloses a method and system for providing information on objects, which includes identification symbols that can be read physically. In this prior art, information on objects existing in an actual paper, information on predetermined products, etc. are searched from a virtual paper via a network and are then provided to a user.
The aforementioned conventional arts disclose technology that recognizes various barcode using a camera equipped in a mobile phone, etc. and extracts information from the barcode, information search using the same, and related network related technology.